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Death from Above part IV: Staring Into the Face of Death
Posted By: AlphaBravo343<e.moeller3@verizon.com>
Date: 18 April 2003, 3:55 AM


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Answered prayers

2200 Hours, January 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Earth, grid nineteen by thirty-two (Washington D.C.)

      They had come fast, even with the warning from the HQ in Denver, they hadn't been prepared for what came. The sky was thick with Covenant troop transport ships. When they slowed, and began hovering above ground, hundreds of smaller Covenant dropships streamed from their docking bays. It was at that point that the largest military engagement in the history of the world had begun, and every man able to fight took up his rifle and fought them. But they were too numerous, they pressed through the UNSC ranks, through the hundreds of troops gaurding the former capitol of the United States of America. The Covenant pressed through Washington D.C., and killed everything in their path.

      Private Owen Landry fired his MA5B at the grunt that hobbled toward him, the three rounds tearing through the grunts' thin armor, shredding the innards of it's chest. It fell to the ground, it's plasma pistol discharged twice, and then it was still. He sighed, he had been fighting off stragglers for about two hours, He and thirty other Marines that had survived the initial wave of Covenant troops that assulted Washington D.C. His head tilted toward the sky, it was black with acrid smoke, and where it wasn't he could see explosions ripping flashes of nuclear fire into the night. As he stared in awe at the display of dancing fire in the sky, he thought he heard something. "The wind?" he thought, no it wasnt a howling sound, it was more of a mechanic, high pitched whistling...
      Covenant Dropship
      In the time it took for this to cross his mind, four Covenant dropships tore through the thick smoke and rising ash surrounding the city. "Please God, no" he thought, feeling the weariness right down to his bones. He cycled the bolt on his MA5B and began to sprint toward the bunker they had fallen back to, his muscles screaming in protest all the way.
       The Marines stood silent, assult rifles trained on the landing dropships. Cavell cycled the bolt on the 20mm chain cannon mounted on top of the bunker. They watched silently as the bay doors opened and the Covenant troops, still unaware of the Marines, grouped together as the dropships dusted off. Jagger pulled the pin on a frag grenade, drew his arm back, and tossed it into the group of Covenant troops. For a moment, it seemed as if time had slowed to a crawl. The grenade sailed through the air and clattered to the ground on a slab of concrete. Then another landed in the center of a group of elites. They detonated almost simultaneously. Grunts and Jackals were tossed from the thundering explosions and fell, elites screamed in agony as they were pelted with small bits of white hot shrapnel. The remaining forces had stood in shock for a moment, then Cavell opened up with the 20mm and they rounds tore through their ranks. Seeing where the rounds were coming from, they began to charge at the bunker. As they did, the marines opened up with their assult rifles. The Covenant were cut down in a hail of gunfire, and then his world went black. A Covenant mortar tank ahd fired on the bunker, sending the marines sailing through the air as the small building was obliterated beneath them.
      He opened his eyes, he was on the ground, and his fellow marines were no where in his range of vision. He saw the burning rubble of the Capitol Building, the broken and crumbled Washington Monument, and his eyesight was shadowed. He looked up, squinting his eyes to see what had come to kill him. "God," he thought, tears coming to his eyes, "save me," and he looked at the face of the elite- and it exploded outward, the round tore through its skull sending bits of bone and brain matter out of its face, or where it had been. He blinked his eyes in disbelief, And then he was being picked up. He couldn't see who was helping him, and he didn't care. It was a miracle, an answered prayer. Finally, after he had been stood upright, he turned to see the one who had saved his life, the one whom God had sent to save him. And he almost fell over again at what stood before him.
      "It's the Master Chief", he thought. "That's not possible, there are no more Spartans" But still, he saw at least one-hundred of them, and they had brought equipment. Tanks, warthogs, pelicans, and crates of ammo.
      "What are you doing here?" he asked, shifting his eyes back to the Master Chiefs' faceplate.
      "We've been deployed to take back Earth. And tonight, the Covenant will be taught a lesson: Don't mess with the bull, or you'll get the horns," he said and chuckled. How could he be so lighthearted?, and at a time like this? He looked back at the army of Spartans that had come to save Earth, and he didnt need an answer to his question, he knew. They weren't going to lose, the Covenant would not take Earth. And it was at that point that Owen Landry decided that if there was anything that needed to be done to save his homeworld, he would aide these invincible super soldiers in their task.

To Be Continued...





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